Pop-Cultured Catholic #16: The Ascension of Lula’s Love from Storge to Agape in Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Primal”

For my second-to-last Halloween-themed post, I have decided to delve into arguably one of the most heartfelt episodes from Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated show on Adult Swim, “Primal”. That episode focuses on a character working for the show’s villain of the week, who helps capture the protagonists. But said character named Lula soon grows to empathize with them, due to her discovering their backstory and relating it to her own personal tragedy. This sets her on a path towards reformation and heroic self-sacrifice.

The main story in this anthology series centers around a neanderthal hunter and female tyrannosaur, Spear and Fang, who form a partnership after the deaths of their offspring. They survive together in this fantasy world of “One Million B.C.” meets “Conan the Barbarian”, and their episodic journey to find a new family eventually leads to them facing more advanced human civilizations. In keeping with Genndy’s love of visual storytelling, these episodes have provided a great deal of spectacle, thrills, and emotional drama with very little spoken dialogue.

Episodes 7-9 from “Primal” Season 1 each provide a self-contained adventure fit for spooky season, but the most meaningful and emotionally impactful one is Episode 8: “Coven of the Damned”. When the episode begins, Spear and Fang are still roaming this primordial continent ruled by prehistoric animals, other fearsome beasts, savage ape-men, and the occasional supernatural threat. While laying low, they happen upon a race of witch-like people. The witches have just captured a fellow neanderthal, bound him to stone columns, drew magic runes on him, and lit a green fire in preparation for something.

Spear and Fang quietly watch in horror, as the coven’s matriarch arrives on a pterosaur mount, ready to perform a dark ritual on the bound neanderthal. The witches chant in celebration of their matriarch’s arrival. That is, except for one witch, whom the credits refer to as “Lula”. As Lula solemnly watches from the sidelines, seemingly ostracized by her group, their matriarch transforms into a demonic looking entity. In her eldritch form, the matriarch drains the captured neanderthal’s life force, leaving a husk behind.

After draining all the caveman’s life force in the form of green glowing energy, the transformed matriarch harnesses it… to create a small baby. Immediately, the witches are rejoicing and each clamber to be the one who will receive the baby. That is, except for Lula, who spectates with a depressed look. Although it is not clearly stated, it appears that the witches’ tribe and perhaps their whole species has been reduced to this small all-female population of haggard individuals, who cannot procreate naturally anymore. Hence, they seem to have turned to this dark sorcery as the only perceived means to keep their lineage going. Spear and Fang have seen enough.

Unfortunately, the matriarch’s mind-controlled pterosaur turns to spot Spear and Fang, sending the witches in hot pursuit. Spear and Fang flee for their lives, swiping at the levitating witches that ambush them and vanish. However, that one witch Lula manages to hold Fang’s attention and cast a spell to bring the tyrannosaur under her mind-control, like the matriarch’s pterosaur. Spear is shocked to find Fang now ridden by one of the witches and is quickly captured himself.

The next day, Spear finds himself tied to the same rock columns, with Fang now serving as Lula’s mind-controlled mount. Dismayed, Spear furiously shouts to get Fang’s attention, causing the dinosaur to briefly break free from Lula’s control and throw her off. Lula focuses her magic to regain control over Fang, but is intrigued. To find out what is so special about Spear and Fang’s connection, Lula conjures another spell, which allows her to enter both of their minds and watch their past events play out before her.

Lula uses her “backstory magic” to witness the events shown in the very first episode of “Primal”, when Spear and Fang’s shared loss of family becomes the start to their partnership. To recap, Episode 1 titled “Spear and Fang” begins with Spear returning from his hunt to witness his wife and children being attacked and devoured by a pack of horned reddish tyrannosaurs. Struggling to keep on living after the death of his family, Spear spots the silhouette of Fang. He mistakenly thinks she might be one of the horned tyrannosaurs, and follows her with vengeful intent. Spear is intrigued upon noticing that Fang is not only different from his family’s assailants, but also a mother herself. That moment of peace is interrupted when the horned tyrannosaurs also arrive, now with eyes on Fang’s hatchlings. Spear and Fang lash out at their common enemy together and successfully defeat them, but not before Fang’s babies are eaten too.

Lula is taken aback by the duo’s backstory, and the viewers sees why, when she then uses that magic to rewatch her own past. After eying a drawing of herself and a child, she rewatches the time her coven’s matriarch gave her a baby. Lula’s vision flashes forward to her past self and her still small child playing in a flowery meadow. Lula’s present self cries out in horror and grief, remembering when she dropped her guard for a single moment. Her child gets distracted by a butterfly and obliviously chases it off a cliff. Since then, Lula has been in mourning and scorned by her coven.

As Lula draws the marks on Spear for the upcoming night’s ritual, her empathy for Spear leads to her having second thoughts and eventually taking decisive action. She sees that same kind of butterfly fluttering around Spear, is reminded of the similar histories they share, and can no longer bring herself to watch Spear be sacrificed. When the matriarch descends once more to carry out the ritual, Lula takes Spear’s… spear and slays the matriarch’s pterosaur. Next, she sends the mind-controlled Fang to charge in, scatter the other witches, and smash the pillars, freeing Spear. However, the matriarch is enraged.

When the coven’s matriarch intervenes, Lula has no choice but to choose between her life or Spear’s. The matriarch skin-changes into a supersized wolf (my Halloween posts even include a werewolf now) and trades snaps with Fang, proving to be a dangerously even opponent for the tyrannosaur. Lula realizes that their combined strength will not be enough to hold back the coven, so Spear needs to get out of there now. Before Fang and the transformed matriarch begin a proper fight, Lula skin-changes into a giant raven to buy them time. She distracts the matriarch with her assault and commands the mind-controlled Fang to ride off with Spear, while they have that brief window.

Lula gives her life for Spear. The matriarch and Lula continue fighting in wolf and raven form, but the latter is critically wounded. As Lula turns back into her normal form and the matriarch’s jaws open to encircle her head, we cut back to Spear and Fang. Lula’s spell wears off on the running Fang, causing her and Spear to briefly tumble. But by now, the pair is far enough away from the coven. They wander off on their next adventure, with Spear still wondering what happened to Lula.

But Lula’s sacrifice does not go in rewarded, for the fate awaiting her yields a beautifully ironic contrast to the episode’s title, “Coven of the Damned”. We cut to Lula’s spirit wandering in the afterlife, surrounded by a recreation of the flowery meadow. She sees another figure approaching from the distance and rushes to embrace it… the spirit of her child, once lost and now reunited with her. THE END

In the Greek language, there are multiple words commonly used to describe different forms through which love can be expressed, including these four: Eros, Storge, Philia, and Agape: "Eros" refers to the passion to share oneself bodily with someone to initiate and nourish that unitive and procreative bond in marriage. "Storge" is commonly used to reference the natural familial bonds that parents, children, siblings, and relatives share with each other. "Philia" often refers to a cultivated friendship, usually between equals. And "Agape" often references one's love of someone for their own sake, committed as an unconditional act of the will, even to the point of laying down one's life for one's friends (John 15:13) or loving one's enemies (Matthew 5:44).

While Agape is considered the highest expression of love that emulates God the most, the previous three can offer robust foundations onto which agape can be built, as arguably demonstrated by Saint Peter’s exchange with the risen Jesus and my pop-culture example with Lula’s character arc. Bible scholars have pointed out that when the risen Jesus appears to Peter and asks if he loves Jesus three times, as a reversal of Peter's three denials, both "Philia" and "Agape" are used in an intriguing manner. The first two times Jesus asks Peter, he uses "Agape", while Peter responds with an affirmation of "Philia". Only when asking Peter the third time does he use "Philia". A common interpretation is that Peter wanted to state his love for Jesus is not yet as perfect as agape, but he does love Jesus as a friend. But Jesus shows that he is willing to meet Peter where he is currently at, so that Jesus can help elevate Peter's current level of love to a perfected state through his grace. Likewise, Lula starts out as a pawn for the coven's matriarch. The love she currently harbors is mainly the "Storge" towards her tragically lost child, and she is willing to help sacrifice Spear. However, her curiosity draws her to learn about Spear and Fang's backstories, involving the losses of their own offspring. Her empathy drives her to learn and appreciate the full value of Spear's life. Thus, a newfound agape love for Spear grows from Lula's storge love for her lost child. And Lula is even willing to stand up to her own matriarch and die for Spear, so that he can be free and live. Similar to the themes I brought up in my post on "Frankenstein", this episode of "Primal" also seems to convey an important balance, affirming both of these: that the witch coven's act used to create their children is an evil means not justified by a good end, yet the child's existence itself is still something precious and sacred that we ought to care for.

Here are some clips from the episode…

1.) Spear and Fang Come Upon Ritual:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvgWgezVuHA

2.) Full Ritual Scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzBD_EjJ9FA

3.) Spear and Fang Captured By Coven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Ifgh4U9s8

4.) Lula Visits Fang's Past:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpvXcXZs8OU

5.) Lula Visits Spear's Past:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX4I5HTBWhg

6.) Lula Revisits Her Own Past:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt06voLt0M0

7.) Lula Stands Up to Her Matriarch and Sacrifices Herself For Spear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJDAiGRQhRI

8.) Lula and Daughter Reunite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwDOcL4Cxmg